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| Alternating Thoughts About ALternatives | March 2008 / Issue 1 | |
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Thanks for joining the ODO. The focus
of these monthly newsletters will be on the following topics: In the past few years millions of Americans have been starting to question how sustainable our economy is. The cause for such concern stems from the growing dependence on foreign oil. It is clear that this dependence puts America at tremendous risk. Furthermore, the awareness that burning 1,000 barrels of oil a second leaves many Americans with an overwhelming urge to change their “cheap oil” behavior. There have many people contacting the ODO, arguing that the Peak Oil movement is a “dooms-day scenario” and a “chicken-littleism”. This is simply not true. However, these people should be commended for the good habit of questioning the overall opaque virtue of the peak oil topic. There are many psychological reactions when coming to the realization that peak oil is not a THEORY. The premise for the ODO hails no relationship to Nostradamus Ideology, rather is a portal for information about the next generation of energy use and production. It is very easy to have a negative psychological reaction when realizing the limits to growth of our civilization. A good number of people who have learned about these growing concerns have been able to suppress having even learned of them in the first place. This form of denial is a very common reaction for humans. Thinking about an energy constrained future remains on the outside of many people’s comfort zones. However, the first step to managing our use of energy is to understand and appreciate just how much it does for us. There are many different outlooks
on the transition from oil to a post-carbon civilization. It is easy
to research peak oil and find optimistic and pessimistic prophecies.
Remaining unbiased, while researching the half full/ half empty spectrum
of reports and information on peak oil proves to be a very arduous task.
The perspective you have on oil consumption, when beginning to research
it, will produce significantly different reserach results. It is important to
look for information on sites that have no corporate agenda or biased
information. Two very respected organizations are, The
Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas and The
Post Carbon Institute. From these organizations you will find an
un-biased and expansive array of information on everything energy. Americans constitute just 5% of the world's population. However, are responsible for consuming 25% of the world's resoruces. This Affluence can be seen in the following list of American habits. American Habits: Transportation Goods source: Paul Ehrlich and the Population Bomb / PBS |
In this issue: |
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Peak Oil Passnotes: The Race to the
Bottom (of the Barrel) One of the reasons is that the Wal-Mart economy of the world, bargain basement U.S., has once again seen its currency rupture a little bit more. Stacking high and selling your countrymen cheap, either out on to the streets due to defaulted mortgages or on the fields of imperial war around the world is not really working as an economic plan for U.S. power....read more |
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Beyond Hope and Doom: Time for a Peak Oil Pep Talk Awareness of Peak Oil, Climate Change, impending global economic implosion, topsoil depletion, biodiversity collapse, and the thousand other dire threats crashing down upon us at the dawn of the new millennium constitutes an enormous psychological burden, one so onerous that most people (and institutions) respond with a battery of psychological defenses-mostly versions of denial and distraction-in an effort to keep conscious awareness comfortably distanced from stark reality. I discuss this in "the Psychology of Peak Oil and Climate Change," chapter 7 of Peak Everything..read more |
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Newsletter
Introduction
Sincerely, Matthew
E. Coyle Oil Dependency Organization oildependency.org
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